'Independent' financial advice... where? how?

Charlton_King

For someone about to retire + downsize + draw up will + make investments etc., is there such a thing as a truly independent adviser one can hire for a consultation session?

If so, has anyone actually done this and therefore be able to give me any pointers?

dunstonh

is there such a thing as a truly independent adviser one can hire for a consultation session?

Yes. An independent financial adviser.

However, IFAs are not legal advisers. So, will not deal with the Will. The rest falls under the remit of an IFA though.

financial_illiterate

You can visit http://www.unbiased.co.uk/ for more details and to find a local one.

Charlton_King

dunstonh wrote: »

Yes. An independent financial adviser.

However, IFAs are not legal advisers. So, will not deal with the Will. The rest falls under the remit of an IFA though.

But surely the dispositions one might make of one's assets could be highly influenced by inheritance law and therefore the best way for an individual to draw up his/her will..?

Am I missing something here?

Aegis

Charlton_King wrote: »

But surely the dispositions one might make of one's assets could be highly influenced by inheritance law and therefore the best way for an individual to draw up his/her will..?

Am I missing something here?

An adviser can certainly talk through the desired bequests and can explain the tax position on the estate, but unless they have a specific will writing qualification, you're still likely to need a third party to draw up any legal documents. The same applies for most bespoke trust arrangements, for example: the IFA can advise what to put in the trust, when to put it in and how to invest the contents of the trust, but typically a solicitor would actually establish the trust itself.

Imnoexpert_2

I have - and still do use (at times) independent advice.

If you have time 'do the rounds' listen to banks, and a couple of IFA's. At the moment you will get a lot of initial advice free - as part of their sales process to convince you that they have knowledge and ideas you need. After that you will be much wiser. Then do a lit bit of reading round their initial thoughts. Even check out a few ideas you liked the sound of on this site. Only when you understand the products you are being sold and the charges you are paying should you go forward to the next stage of choosing an advisor, firming up the details around the strategy they have probably suggested in the initial discussions and paying (preferably on the basis of whichever is cheaper for you of, a flat fee with commissions the adviser gets rebated, or some kind of deal where he/she takes commission but rebates a chunk of it.

Sorry, long answer to a short question. There are truly independent advisors. You could have them by the hundreds very quickly, and in my experience they are nice guys, brilliant sales people and very knowledgeable. Oh and quite expensive. As I have said before, I was hiring a top solicitor at the same time to give me detailed legal advice on another matter and his charges were (I thought) eye watering but nothing to the amount I estimated a financial adviser would be costing me. I'm not saying that the advice might not be worth the money however.

Final point. Part of this game is a science. Some of the advice is a matter of fact and detail (tax is an example). Much is an art so subject to the advisors skill in picking funds that match your risk profile or the right asset mix. I was surprised at the range of different advice and products recommended given by advisers and found in the end I had difficult choices to make about who I felt I could work with, and which advice was best for me and in order to decide I had to learn a lot.

Hope this helps. Try to enjoy the process - that helped me.

calypso_rhapsody

I met with three IFAs not that long ago when i was considering changing my adviser. I was surprised that two seemed to have a very standard approach with little flexibility as to choice of investment or portfolio selection. I am not sure whether this was just a question of efficiency or whether their selections were influenced by commission.

Of the three only one stood out as willing to take the time to properly understand our objectives and to tailor a flexible solution. I was tempted but in the end stayed where i am (for the time being).

I have just spent a lot of time to-ing and fro-ing with my current adviser on the topic of offshore bonds ... he was really quite keen to 'sell' this to me (and my husband) but in the end after a lot of pressure from me to examine the detail he conceded that it was probably not beneficial as we are likely to remain higher rate tax payers .... as far as i can see that should have been patently obvious to him before we started on the protracted debate!

So my advice is yes see an IFA but do not take their word as gospel - make sure you understand the products and rationale for the advice and that you are happy to rely on it.

So now i am pondering on whether to change after all ... next year i will be 55 and need to think about pension fund options ...... am not really confident that the current chap will give the best advice but on the other hand i am gaining increasing confidence in my own ability to challenge and assess advice ...

Imnoexpert_2

I missed out of my early post that when I went through the exercise of talking to (I think it was 3 Independent IFA's and 2 bank IFA's none of them mentioned let alone recommended National Savings Inflation Linked Bonds (which I thought at the time was a no brainer).

I don't think it was because they wouldn't get commission. I think it is just a mind set.

dunstonh

Imnoexpert wrote: »

I missed out of my early post that when I went through the exercise of talking to (I think it was 3 Independent IFA's and 2 bank IFA's none of them mentioned let alone recommended National Savings Inflation Linked Bonds (which I thought at the time was a no brainer).

I don't think it was because they wouldn't get commission. I think it is just a mind set.

IFAs are the biggest introducers of clients to NS&I. NS&I have a website for IFAs and provide email and postal information to IFAs because of the levels of referrals they do.

However, what you can often find is that you get clients that you do everything and you get clients that want you to deal specifically in an area. The latter, in case of investments, can lead to the IFA not dealing with cash based holdings but looking only at risk based investments.

mania112

Charlton_King wrote: »

But surely the dispositions one might make of one's assets could be highly influenced by inheritance law and therefore the best way for an individual to draw up his/her will..?

Am I missing something here?

Well Inheritance Tax is an issue the IFA will help you with, and as part of his recommendations he will (i'm sure) suggest you write a Will.

Because a Will is a legal document, most IFA's do not not consider this part of their business. I understand some IFA's will help you with a Will. But it's too low cost for them, not worth their time.

dunstonh

I understand some IFA's will help you with a Will. But it's too low cost for them, not worth their time.

Its not that. Its about knowing where your knowledge and limits are. An IFA has no qualifications in writing Wills (as standard). We would be no better than doing a write-it-yourself Will from WH Smiths. We are not legal experts. You start moving into solicitor/will writer territory if you go that way.

There are probably IFAs that focus heavily in that part of the market who may have decided to go through non-IFA related qualifications and training who can do Wills. However, don't expect it.